Ireland–Better Late Than Never

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s been like two months or more since I posted my last blog.  What can I say?  Fortunately, I’m sure there’s hardly anyone listening out there–this is mostly an exercise/indulgence for my own edification and amusement.  August, and to a certain degree, September, were simply crazy months where I was constantly busy.  After I came back from SummerSongs in the middle of August, I performed on Fountain Square in Cincinnati with my buddy, Greg Tackett.  Then I packed up and traveled, for the first time in my life, outside the U.S.A. to Ireland.  On Aug. 25th I flew from Cincinnati to Atlanta, where I hopped aboard a plane going to Dublin, Ireland.  It was an eight-hour flight, the longest I’ve ever been on, and I got to experience jet lag for the first time, too.

But the trip was wonderful.  I met my brother, Mark, at the airport, and he helped me find my way to a bus stop and take the right bus to the Camden Court Inn, where we stayed for three nights.  Though I spent lots of time with Mark and his wife, Resa, and other relatives, I also got to spend a good amount of time on my own, and it was those times that I got to explore a bit of Dublin, including St. Stephen’s Square Park, where I took this picture of a statue of the famous Irish writer, Oscar Wilde.  I was fascinated by the casual pose which is so atypical of sculptures of famous people.  Oscar would have approved, I’m sure.

The picture on the left shows the statue of Molly Malone, the fishmonger hero of the Irish song, one of the first songs I learned to play on the guitar–mostly because it has only two chords.  The statue, not surprisingly, is one of the favorite haunts of street musicians, who are all over the streets of Dublin.  It was sites and sounds such as these that were the favorite parts of my visit to the Emerald Isle.  That and listening to the people talking in brogue that is their everyday tongue, not an act put on in some movie.  Fascinating.

I also traveled with Mark, Resa and Annalise, Resa’s sister, to the west of Dublin to towns like New Grange and Longford.  I got to sit in various Pubs and have dinner, drinks and listen to Irish music and Irish bands playing American music.  Of course, as a non-drinker, I just sipped hot coffee while the others had their glasses of Guinness.  I have many memories, many of them hilarious, such as the highway signs, e.g., “Traffic Calming Ahead” instead of “Slow Traffic Ahead” and “Divided Carriageway” for “Divided Highway.”  I was also amused and slightly shocked to see men standing on the side of a busy highway, openly relieving themselves.  (At least they had the decency to face the side of the road!)  It was at times like this that I was reminded that I was indeed in a foreign country, where customs and culture was distinctly different from the way we live in the States.

So–the trip was definitely a unique experience for me, and no doubt played a part in why I haven’t sat down and written a blog entry for almost two months.  But now that life has settled a bit, I think my next post won’t be as long in coming.

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